As a student coming from a non-target school, I want to apply to as many I-banks as possible. Considering the difficulty of getting into a bulge bracket, my focus has been on middle market and boutique banks.
My question is: at what point does the number of summer internships/summer analyst positions I have applied for get ridiculous?
I'm sure you can imagine the massive number of places which are possibilities.
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I think what you should focus in is quality, not quantity. I am in a similar position, coming from a non-traget with good grades and solid extracirriculars/leadership. I applied to six top BB banks for internships and worked very, very hard on making solid connections there. Thus far I gotten three interviews from the six banks. I could have sent my application to websites of BBs, MMs and boutiques, however, coming from a non-target that is not just going to cut it.
Reach out to alumni and any other contacts you can possibly think of. Keep a positive attitude and network like crazy. I would say applying to more than 15 banks (and then having to follow up with them all) would be ridiculous. That is just my opinion.
95% chance you will never even get an interview if all you're doing is applying online or emailing a cover letter to the [email protected] address listed on their page. If you think this is how you get a job in banking, you are seriously deluded.
Having said that, there are kids at target schools who drop their resumes with like 40 on-campus recruiters at a time.
I applied to around 50 this fall. Most were ibanking some were research and s&t. I go to a target and the on campus career site is really easy to drop a resume also it only takes a few minutes to customize a cover letter. Apply to as many jobs that you possibly can. That being said mm44's strategy listed above seems solid if you have an existing network to leverage. No reason you can not do both.
If you don't mind me asking McMo, how many first rounder interviews did you receive from the 50?
Invited to 15 for first round interviews, probably attended 12. Out of that 12 went to 4/5 superdays and got 2 offers.
McMo,
Did you use a standard cover letter or actually write one out for each place?
I did not write 50 custom letters, as many of the places i applied to did not require cover letters. I would guess of the 30 or so jobs that required cover letters half were custom and the rest were just a matter of changing the name of the company.
In terms of getting invites to places where i spent time on cover letters versus a standard cover letter I felt there was no difference.
Apply to as many as you can, but selectively choose 6-8 that you think you have the best shot at, whether through campus recruiting or a networking contact, and work them tirelessly. I would say at the smaller places wherever you interview you should try and call/email the HR people or an analyst there and see if you can talk with them a few times about opportunities. Most of the smaller places don't have formalized recruiting or the like, but instead rely on a few analysts/associates to cover interviews during the initial phases.
And apply to every BB you can. Online apps are a shot in the dark but it never hurts. And if you have a contact you still need to apply online to formally submit your app.
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